US closes loophole allowing advanced AI chip exports to China
Nvidia reported record quarterly revenue of $81.6 billion, an 85% year-over-year increase. CFO Colette Kress said AI has shifted from a "nice-to-have" to a necessity for productivity. The US Commerce Department closed a regulatory loophole allowing advanced AI chips like Nvidia's Blackwell to reach Chinese entities through overseas subsidiaries; one industry source estimated hundreds of thousands of chips may have been exported this way over the past year. Wix cut roughly 1,000 jobs, 20% of its workforce, citing currency pressures and AI-driven changes.
End of Cheap AI Arrives as Providers Shift to Profitability
OpenAI and Anthropic are raising prices after years of subsidized AI pricing. AI agents performing tasks like booking and coding consume dramatically more computational resources than standard chatbot interactions. Companies are responding by adopting open-source and smaller specialized models, with some reducing costs from $15 to five cents per million tokens. Some firms have encountered "tokenmaxxing," where AI costs exceed employee expenses within months, while chip shortages add industry uncertainty.
Nvidia Unveils RTX Spark, Its First Complete PC Chip
Nvidia unveiled the RTX Spark at Computex 2026, its first complete Arm-based PC processor rather than a discrete graphics card, promising to power premium Windows laptops and desktops this fall. The chip features up to 20 CPU cores, 6,144 GPU cores and up to 128GB unified memory, reaching roughly RTX 5070 laptop performance while consuming up to 80 watts, with Microsoft citing it in the Surface Laptop Ultra. Major developers including Adobe, Riot Games and Epic are porting software to the platform, with Nvidia claiming full game compatibility through emulation including anti-cheat systems. Pricing and specific benchmarks remain undisclosed.
Experimental Drug Nearly Doubles Survival in Pancreatic Cancer
Revolution Medicines' experimental drug daraxonrasib nearly doubled survival time for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer in a Phase III trial. Patients taking the daily pill survived a median of 13.2 months compared to 6.7 months for those on standard chemotherapy. The drug blocks mutated KRAS proteins that drive tumor growth in more than 90 percent of pancreatic cancer cases, a target long considered "undruggable." The FDA has granted breakthrough designation and will expedite its review.
Manila sees China threat unchanged despite Trump-Xi thaw
Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on May 30 the Philippines faces a "severe threat" from China despite US-China tensions easing after the Trump-Xi summit. China's military conducted combat readiness patrols near Scarborough Shoal during the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum. Teodoro dismissed Chinese aid offers, saying "no matter how they sugarcoat their assistance to us, it doesn't cut the mustard." China's expansive South China Sea claims were largely discredited by the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling that Beijing rejects.
US softens tone on Taiwan at Asia security summit
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore called on American allies to increase defense spending while taking a notably restrained tone on Taiwan, omitting any direct mention of the island. The conference addressed escalating conflicts across the Asia-Pacific, where military spending has reached $681 billion, rising 8.1% in 2025. Following President Trump's meeting with President Xi, both sides agreed on a "constructive relationship and strategic stability" framework. China declined to send its defense minister and kept a low profile while Japan, Australia, the Philippines and India formed new multilayered security partnerships.
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- Iran's Pezeshkian submits resignation letter to Khamenei: report. The president reportedly cited inability to govern as the IRGC effectively seized control of vital decision-making, in a rare public fracture within Iran's leadership. Presidential officials denied the report.
- Right-winger leads Colombia vote, setting up June runoff. Abelardo de la Espriella, nicknamed "The Tiger" and aligned with Trump, holds narrow lead over leftist Ivan Cepeda in a polarized election viewed as a referendum on outgoing President Petro's "total peace" agenda.
- Ukraine denies striking Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Ukraine's military rejected Russian claims that a drone struck Europe's largest nuclear facility, calling it 'yet another propaganda ploy.' The IAEA expressed serious concern over the reported incident at the plant seized by Russia in 2022.
- Russia drone crashes into Romania, injuring two. Romanian specialists confirm a Russian-made Geran-2 drone caused the crash — the most serious incident on NATO territory since Ukraine invasion, injuring two in Galati.
- Malaysia bans under-16s from Facebook, TikTok and YouTube. The Online Safety Act requires platforms with 8 million+ users to verify all accounts via government ID and blocks children from major social media, with fines up to $2.5 million for non-compliance.